Roller skate wheel hubcap



June 7,? 1949. c. M. HERMAN 2,472,087

ROLLER SKATE WHEEL HUB CAP Filed Sept. 12, 1945 INVENTOR 4ee0a M /Ee M4N ATTORN EY :shoulder 1.

Patented June 7, 1949 ROLLER SKATE WHEEL HUBCAP Carroll M. Bierman, Franklin Square, N. Y., 1assignor of one-half to :Frank J. Wagner, Franklin Square, N. Y.

Application September 12, 1945, Serial No. 615,778

2 Claims.

This invention lrelates to roller skate wheels in general.

Among the objects of the present invention, it is aimed to provide -an improved roller skate wheel hub .cap which is particularly adapted for use by professional skaters or performers, to which end a combination has been Worked out which will eliminate some of the objectionable noises today accompanying the use of professional skates, which can be expeditiously assembled by the aver- 'age user, which will have 'no yobjectionable projections, and which will `permit forming the skate wheel in an extremely attractive appearance.

These and other features, capabilities and advantages of the invention will appear` from a detailed description of specific embodiments thereof `illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a roller skate wheel made according to the present invention in full size;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section on the line 2-2 and enlarged as to the scale of the view shown inFig. 1;

Fig. 3 is vafragmental section of a second embodiment on an enlarged scale.

According to the `embodiment illustrated in Figs. l and 2, the improved Wheel consists essentially of va'treadfmember I composed in the present instance of an intermediate housing member 2 .composed of wood, preferably maple. and hav- .ing plastic annular end members 3 and il. The middle portion 2 preferably is centrally cham- .bered, having .a :main central opening 5 with a narrow annular recess 6 at one end and an annular shoulder I at lthe Iother end. The plastic end member 3 preferably is bevelled at its outer peripheral edge as shown at8, has a central opening 9 in alinement with the central opening .5 in

lthe wooden element 2, rand adjacent to the opening 9, is provided with an annular recess I8. The depth of the recess ID in the present instance is substantially the same as vthe'depth of the opening 9.

The plastic element 4 preferably has an opening II registering with the kopening I2 at the The plastic element vll also is provided withan annular recess I3 about the depth of the annular opening Il.

The annular opening 9 cooperates with the 'opening 5 to form the annular recess 3 in the wooden element 2. The plastic elements 3 and 4 may be composed of any suitable plastic material. Excellent results, however, have been achieved 'when the plastic material used is composed of a v2 polymerized methyl methacrylate known vin the ,trade as Lucite or the like having Wearing qualities about equal to `maple wood.

The bearing element for the skate consists essentially'of a metal shell Ill having a cylindrical element `I5 formed to have a frictional rit in the alined openings I I vand I2 of the plastic member 4 and wooden element 2. The cylindrical member `I5 in turn has an outer external thread .-I6 screw-threadedly to receive the annulus Il vwhich is conformed snugly to t in the recess I3. Preferably the annulus Il has two openings I8 and I9 for the fingers of a Spanner wrench to enable a mechanic or the user to remove the-annulus II from the cylindrical portion I5 of the shell I4.

The shell I4 also has a second cylindrical `portion -I I9 conformed to frictionally t in the opening 5 of the wooden element 2, the cylindrical portions H9 and I5 being connected to one another by the disk or liange portion 20. Inalinement with the disk portion 20, there is formed a flange 2| extending'inwardly from the cylindrical portion I5 in turn to form with the disk portion *.20 a shoulder for the ball bearing 22. This ball bearing unit 22 in the present instance consists essentially of an outer annulus 23 snugly mounted against the innerperiphery of the cylindrical element IIS, to form the outer bearing .or raceway for the ball bearings 24 While the inner raceway for the ball bearings ,24 is formed by the annulus 25 having a central opening 26 to receive the diminished portion 2l of the axle 28 of the truck of a roller skate.

The diminished portion 2l in turn `has a threaded projection 29 to receive the nut '35) `preferably spaced from the annulus 25 by a washer v3| as shown. The end member il similar to the end member 3 is inclined or ared at 32 as shown.

When the tread is composed of a solid piece o'f plastic material or a solid piece of wood such as maple, the chambers l0, 6, 5, II and I3 will al1 be substantially reproduced, see the unit 33 o'f'Fig. `3.

This Aunit 33 is in the present instance mainly distinguished from the unit I shown in Fig. 2 in vthat the recess 34 is concave, instead of rectangular, as is .the case with the recess 6 of the `embodiment shown in Fig. 2.

The bearing already described and the cap now to be described are substantially the same for either the unit I or the unit 33, and therefore the description thereof will not be repeated.

The cap for the outer face of the wheel unit I, as well as for the wheel unit 33, consists essentially of a metal disk 35, the periphery of which is conformed snugly to t in the recess I0 as shown. At one side of the disk 35, there is secured the spider 36 having a plurality of spring iingers 31 having projections 38 resiliently to extend into the recess 6 of the unit I and the recess 34 of the unit 33 resiliently to anchor the disk 35. On the other side of the disk 35, there is preferably secured as shown, primarily for the purpose of ornamentation, the disk 39 having the concave portion 40 provided with an annular inclined flange 4| at the outer periphery of the concave portion 40. The concave portion 40 preferably also is provided as shown with a plurality of openings to receive ornamental stones composed of various cut pieces of glass 42 having geometric interconnected faces to facilitate in transmitting and reflecting light in the well known way. These ornamental stones 42 may be of colored glass or of colored translucent plastic material or the like. In the interest of assembling, the disk 35, spider 36 and disk 39 are all secured to one another by one central rivet 43 preferably having an upset edge 44 engaging the inner face of the spider 36, a shoulder 45 engaging the outer face of the disk 39, and an offset head 46, the outer periphery of the shoulder 45 forming a recess between the head 46 and the disk 39 to enable a screw driver or other ordinary tool to enter the recess so formed, engage the head 46 and remove the cap consisting of the disk 35, spider 36 and disk 39.

The cap, including the disk 35, also serves to protect one side of the bearing from dust and dirt stirred up while using the wheel. The shell I4 in turn substantially closes o the other side from dust and dirt and then only leaves a space suiiicient to enable the heated air to escape during operation of the :ball bearing, to Wit, at the annular space between the flange 2I and the inner bearing element 25.

In the interest of speedy assembly, and cheapness of manufacture, the bearing elements 25, II9 and ball bearings 24 are anchored inside of the cylindrical element 22 by merely bending in the annular flange 41 engaging the outer bearing element I I9 and anchoring it 4between the flange 41 and the disk portion 2U, the ball bearings 24 and inner bearing unit 25 being located in position when mounted on the diminished end 21 of the shaft 28, and secured to the shaft 28, and thereby the shaft 28 in turn secured to the unit I or unit 33 by the nut 30 and spacer 3|.

Preferably whether the bearing is formed in unit I, shown in Fig. 2 or in unit 33, shown in Fig. 3, it has been found that much better control of the wheels is had when the center of the ball bearings 24 is disposed about three-thirtyseconds of an inch nearer to the inner face of the wheel than to the outer face of the wheel. It is believed this is due to the fact that the force on the wheel, whether it is the inner wheel or the outer Wheel of a skate, is rarely on the flat outer annular tread, but generally on the flared portion 8.

Since as aforesaid, the outer flared portion 8 is used much more than the flat face of the intermediate portion 2, it has :been found that if the outer portion 3 is composed of a plastic material, that the noise is materially reduced as compared to when the entire tread I is composed of wood.

If however, the entire tread is composed of a polymerized methyl methacrylate known in the trade as Lucite or the like having wearing qualities about equal to maple wood, then this reduction in noise is also effected.

It will also be noted from Figs. 2 and 3 that when the projections 38 of the spring fingers 31 are disposed in the recess 6, they will yieldably anchor the ornamental cap in place where the outer face, including the outer edges of the concave portion 40 as Well as the outer face of the head 46 will be at least flush with the outer face of the end 3 o1' outer face of the unit I or unit 33 so that no part of the ornamental cap will be in danger of being struck by a passing skater or by the skater himself and in turn of course to protect the ornamental cap from injury.

To enhance the ornamental effect, the concave face 49 of the disk 36 is preferably highly polished, so that the light striking it will be reflected and cooperate with the light transmitted by the light transmitting stones 42 to produce an ensemble ornamental effect.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made to the details of construction without departing from the general spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A roller skate wheel comprising a tread having a central chamber, there being an annular recess at the outer end of said central chamber and an inner annular recess spaced from said outer annular recess, an ornamental cap including a base disk positioned in said outer annular f recess, an ornamental disk having a concave polished face, there .being ornamental stones mounted in said concave face, a spider having spring fingers, and a rivet securing the ornamental disk, base disk and spider to one another, the

i spring fingers entering said inner annular recess and resiliently anchoring said ornamental cap in place with the outer face of the cap ush with the outer face of the Wheel.

2. A roller skate wheel comprising a tread having a central chamber, there being an annular recess at the outer end of said central chamber and an inner annular recess spaced from said outer annular recess, an ornamental cap including abase disk disposed in said outer annular recess, an ornamental disk, a spider having spring fingers, and means for securing the base disk between said ornamental disk and said spider, the spring fingers extending into said inner annular recess resiliently to anchor said ornamental cap in position.

CARROLL M. BIERMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 469,484 Maris Feb. 23, 1892 2,098,205 Eksergian Nov. 2, 1937 2,125,506 Kroll et al. Aug. 2, 1938 2,357,597 Martinec Sept. 5, 1944 2,377,855 Ambrosini June 12, 1945 

